In September, subject matter experts from the U.S. Coast Guard traveled to Cape Town, South Africa for four-day seminar to exchange information and share techniques with officials from the Republic of South Africa on vessel pollution prevention and enforcement. Staff from the Coast Guard’s Compliance Analysis Division at Headquarters led the seminar and discussed the U.S. process for ensuring compliance with the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships and actions the U.S. government takes when it suspects civil or criminal conduct aboard a foreign or domestic vessel.

Today in the Coast Guard’s 8th District we announced the Maritime Commerce Strategic Outlook, which outlines the Commandant’s long term vision to support and grow maritime commerce in the United States. In this post, Rear Adm. John Nadeau offers a few comments regarding the outlook and its three major lines of effort.

Today, we mark the somber anniversary of the sinking of the SS El Faro and the loss of the 33 men and women on board on October 1, 2015. It is appropriate to pause and reflect on this tragic and preventable accident, and challenge ourselves to ensure we are all taking action needed to prevent future casualties.

The Office of Investigation and Analysis released Marine Safety Alert 13-18 to alert mariners about reports regarding poor reception on VHF frequencies used for radiotelephone, digital selective calling (DSC) and automatic identification systems (AIS) when in the vicinity of light emitting diode (LED) on-board ships (e.g., navigation lights, searchlights and floodlights, interior and exterior lights, adornment). Radio frequency interference caused by these LED lamps was found to create potential safety hazards.

A Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation has been convened and will conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation to determine casual factors that contributed to the loss of the Stretch Duck 07. However, the Coast Guard and amphibious passenger vessel industry do not have to delay until the MBI has completed their investigation before taking a proactive approach toward the safety of the vessels and their passengers.

The marine board consists of five members who will investigate all aspects of the casualty including, but not limited to, the pre-accident historical events relating to the accident, the regulatory compliance of Stretch Duck 07, crewmember duties and qualifications, weather conditions and reporting, and Coast Guard oversight.

The Office of Investigations and Analysis issued a Marine Safety Alert to educate professional mariners and the boating public about two recent incidents that led to serious injuries to passengers on uninspected parasail vessels during underway transfer from the vessel to an inflatable raft, (i.e., “banana boat”) that was being towed alongside the vessel by personal water craft (“Jet Ski”).

The Coast Guard is scheduled to conduct a formal public hearing beginning July 16, 2018, at Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston to consider evidence related to an incident that occurred aboard the Bouchard No. 255 tank barge. The hearing will continue to July 27, 2018.

In November, we published a blog post on illegal passenger vessel operations and the risk they pose to public safety, credentialed mariners, and legitimate operators. In this post, we highlight a recent case in Miami as an example of the dangers associated with illegal charter operations and the importance of a coordinated effort between federal and local law enforcement authorities and the passenger vessel industry to combat the problem.

The Coast Guard and the Passenger Vessel Association held their bi-annual Quality Partnership Meeting last month to discuss safety issues and other topics affecting the professional passenger vessel industry. The Coast Guard/PVA partnership was established in 1996 as a non-regulatory mechanism for cooperative, informal, consistent and structured activities to address issues of passenger, personnel, and property safety, and environmental protection within the domestic passenger industry. This post offers an overview of the discussions as well as updates on the partnership’s on going work.

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This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.